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M.I.A. makes her video director debut and guests on this Baltimore club bomber from Rye Rye. It's upbeat, lo-fi, and features people in glow-in-the-dark attire breaking down some manic Bmore moves:

Michael Jackson's death continues to dominate the headlines, as the world struggles to come to terms with the loss of the King of Pop. Yesterday evening, we collected some thoughts from the artistic community. This morning, our managing editor Mark Richardson offered a tribute to Jackson's incomparable life and legacy. We've also compiled a selection of Jackson music and video highlights.

Here's a roundup of more notable news and reactions from around the web:

-- Jackson's autopsy results could take weeks to come in. (MTV)

-- Quincy Jones: "I've lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him." (Vibe)

-- A timeline of Michael Jackson's history on the Billboard charts. (The New York Times)

-- A chart of songs and artists that have sampled Michael Jackson over the years. (Nah Right)

-- Vintage Jackson pieces from The Village Voice archives by Greg Tate, Vince Aletti, and others. (The Village Voice)

-- Justin Timberlake: "We have lost a genius and a true ambassador of not only Pop music but of all music." (People)

-- A summary of Jackson's financial legacy, which includes a reported $500 million worth of debt. (Reuters)

-- Rock critic Ann Powers: "For Jackson was also completely of this world, his often tragic life and complicated art formed by the phenomenon of global celebrity in...

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MIA has paid tribute to Michael Jackson, who died yesterday (June 25) of a heart attack.

?uestlove of the Roots: I know we make light of me never getting sleep and overworking. But I'll say that he didn't go in vain. I will do my best to slow down as to not overwork myself to the point in which I can't even enjoy life anymore. I am devastated over this but we all have memories. I just hope that he will get due justice in all the press memorials and whatnot. I know he was mired in controversy the last decade of his life but I think it's time we let him rest in peace and learn to separate the ART and the ARTIST. That is the MJ I will forever remember. Elvis got revisionist media treatment. I expect the friggin same for my hero.

Saul Williams: I received a MJ scholarship from the 25 million he gave UNCF for performing arts students. Thank u MJ 4 inspiring & funding my dreams & education.

The Decemberists' Colin Meloy: Whoa. The deli lady started weeping while she was getting my greek salad.

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Earlier this week, we broke you off with the news that the Very Best, the collaboration between Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya and Euro DJ duo Radioclit, are getting set to follow up their great mixtape with an official debut album. Warm Heart of Africa is due this fall from Green Owl.

Now you can hear the album's title track, which features Mwamwaya trading off vocals with Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig over Radioclit's impossibly buoyant track. The song is streaming on the Abeano Music blog here.

Koenig is one of two announced guests on the album. The other is M.I.A. So, uh, this thing is shaping up pretty well. You can also hear the album track "Ntende Uli" in our last news story.

Be sure to catch the Very Best at the Pitchfork Music Festival, which will take over Chicago's Union Park July 17-19.

The brother of US actor Mia Farrow was found dead in his Vermont art gallery in suspicious circumstances, US police say.

Back in 2007, a chance meeting at a second-hand furniture store led the Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya to team up with the European DJ/producer duo Radioclit to form the unlikely group the Very Best. Last year, they dropped Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit Are the Very Best, a leftfield surprise of a mixtape that joyously smashed borders and crashed year-end lists, including ours.

Radioclit drew all sorts of lines between various strands of African-influenced pop music and actual African music, backing Mwamwaya with everything from Vampire Weekend's "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" to Michael Jackson's theme from Free Willy. Mwamwaya, singing in four different languages, made everything flow together effortlessly, bringing a dizzy lightness to every track that came his way.

Thankfully, that mixtape didn't mark the end of Mwamwaya's collaboration with Radioclit. This fall, the Very Best will return when Green Owl releases Warm Heart of Africa, the group's official debut LP. M.I.A. and Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig will make guest appearances, on the tracks "Rain Dance" and "Warm Heart of Africa", respectively.

Check out a stream of the album track "Ntende Uli" here:

Next month, the Very Best will make their way to the U.S. for a few performances, including one at...

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M.I.A. has announced that she will be giving away a song to people who vote for independent candidate Jan Jananayagam in the forthcoming European Parliament Elections.

Pop singer and activist M.I.A. is wielding her influence in the political arena once again. She is backing independent British candidate Jan Jananayagam in the upcoming European Parliament elections, which go down June 4-7.

And she's apparently offering a free song to Londoners who back Jananayagam, according to a post on her MySpace.

In a recent Tweet, M.I.A. wrote, "THIS WOMAN IS A G!"

Details below:

As far as policy, Jananayagam seems to be on the same page as M.I.A. with regard to Sri Lanka's current civil struggles. The candidate writes on her website: "In the last few months, I and many tens of thousands of other have tried to influence the British government and main political parties to do something tangible to stop the war in Sri Lanka. But we were unable to stop the forced starvation and aerial bombing of an entire people. We could not persuade our government to do air drops of food or to insist on delivery by ship. Nothing worked. One cannot leave matters in the hands of the established political parties. As an independent candidate who is not afraid to tell the truth and to catalyse change, I intend to make a difference."

M.I.A. also posted some new lyrics (possibly to be featured on the free song?) that are as fiery and self-reflexive as usual:Read More

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